Effects of trauma intervention on HIV sexual risk behaviors among women with co‐occurring disorders in substance abuse treatment

Abstract

Abstract Women in substance abuse treatment often have co‐occurring mental health disorders and a history of trauma; they are also at high risk for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases via unprotected sex. A quasi‐experimental study evaluated the effectiveness of trauma‐enhanced substance abuse treatment combined with HIV/AIDS prevention (N = 122) on reducing sexual risk behaviors compared to treatment with services‐as‐usual (N = 110). Participants in the services‐as‐usual condition were 2.8 times more likely to engage in unprotected sex at the 6‐month follow‐up and 4.5 times more likely to do so at the 12‐month follow‐up than those in the intervention program. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 895–908, 2007.